A Very Rough Sketch

I keep telling people that we've been here for to weeks.  As in, "When did you move to California."  "Two weeks ago."  Which doesn't seem at all strange to me, but my children have started pointing out that no, it's actually been a bit longer than that.  Maybe a lot longer than that.  Coming up on a month?  More than a month?  Is that possible?  There's something about these in between times that are so full of new things, so full of change, and adapting, and transitions that a sense of time is lost altogether. 

California is pretty beautiful.  I could tell you about the dry yellow mountains that we see to the east of us, or the lush green hills to the south of us, or the cool air on the coast, or the perfectly flat valley (really, truly flat, like nothing on the East coast other than Florida maybe) that we live in.  I was just reading with the girls outside before sending them to bed, and we were all snuggled under a blanket, and Zosia said, "I just don't know why it is so cold out!" and Lily said, "Well, this is California after all."  And so it is, cool in the morning and evening, and often quite hot in the middle of the day, but dry, and we have not once complained of the unseasonably hot weather, because you guys, let me tell you what it is like back East!  Humidity!  Mosquitoes!  I try to explain to these Californians how easy they have it, but I don't know they will ever understand until they experience it. 

I can tell you that the people here have been incredibly warm and kind and loving.  We have spent a good part of the past month making new friends and getting to know neighbors and seeing friends from the past, and that is the single thing that has probably started to make this place start to feel like home the most.  The kids scooter with neighborhood kids and we all walk to school together, and it's just lovely, all of it.

On the home front, my days have been busy.  First there were the days that I was just trying to unpack as many boxes as humanly possible, followed by a couple of weeks when my parents were here helping us get settled in, and then the next week the girls started school, and my goodness, my head is still spinning with all of it.  Through those crazy days, I kept remembering Ben's mantra before we moved.  "Adele, life is going to be easier out there."  He would say it, and all I could really see was a big cross country move and the many logistics involved in such a thing.  How could it be easier?  There were some busy, crazy days in there for sure.  But now that the dust has settled, all I can say is that I see how he was right.  This is a wonderful place to be spending this chapter of our family's life.  We are outside all of the time, and are eating some pretty amazing food, and have a lot of support, and my goodness, it is beautiful here.  I can't wait to try to show you all of it.